China Coast Regatta Day 2

The breeze picked up for Day 2 of China Coast Regatta. A 20-25kts northeasterly breeze greeted the sailors as they reached the race track this morning, which was located to the southeast of Lamma Island. 34 boats came out for racing; the IRC Racer classes sailed three windward / leewards and had four retirements in the first race of the day which looked to mostly be spinnaker-related issues. IRC Premier Cruiser sailed two islands courses and HKPN were given one windward / leeward and an island course.

As the day progressed the breeze moderated to around 15kts and the sunshine came out making for the best sailing conditions Hong Kong has to offer. It was an epic sight to see Meitatsu Fukumoto / Seng Huang Lee’s ORMA 60 SHK Scallywag FUKU whizzing around the other fleets while reaching top speeds of 39.7kts.

Continuing an excellent streak from Day 1 was Sam Chan’s TP52 Free Fire. We caught up with Sam on the pontoon after racing “Our day was very good we got 2 -1 -1. In the first race we were not doing too well but we managed to take line honours, we beat Frank Pong’s Custom 75 Jelik on the water. We either got line honours or we got first. How did the crew perform? I think I'm happy with them, they can’t be better. In five races, we've won four already.”

In IRC Racer 2 Glenn Smith’s Grand Soleil 45 Blackjack had a disappointing first race of the day when they badly wrapped the kite at the bottom mark. They were able to claw back however with two firsts in the final races of the day, giving them four bullets in the regatta so far. Blackjack is currently tied for first place overall at 11 points with Richard Van Den Berg’s J 111 Juggerknot.

Glenn Smith commented, “Well, in the first race we were coming down very fast to the jibe, we were using our heavy asymmetric which we haven’t used for a while. When we did the jibe, I think we hit a wave and it sort of spun the asymmetric around the forestay and then we kept wrapping it around and I think that delayed us 15 minutes. We dropped it and managed to finish the race with other boats still in sight. What do we think of our clean sweep otherwise? Well it’s a bit of a surprise, that’s what I am thinking! The boat’s going really well, and these weather conditions are perfect for Blackjack, 15kts and with the refit I did this year it’s made the boat go a little bit faster, it’s going really well.”

The final day of the regatta starts tomorrow – and one hour later to allow some recovery time from tonight’s the Regatta Dinner. All divisions are scheduled to sail two races with more perfect sailing conditions forecast!

Keep up with the latest news on the China Coast Regatta visit: https://www.chinacoastraceweek.com/news